Curtain-raiser apart, much of last night's concert belonged to Colin Matthews, one of the country's most admired composers of the middle generation.
Walton's Spitfire Prelude and Fugue was the attractive pipe opener, full of sturdy aspiration magnificently conveyed by a nobly brass-led CBSO.
The world-weary violin solo at its heart was poignantly taken by guest concert master Marta Abraham, and it was good to welcome conductor Sian Edwards back to Birmingham, with her no-nonsense beat that takes no prisoners.
Colin Matthews, in a pre-performance interview with Tommy Pearson for BBC Radio 3, described his Fourth Sonata as "quite a noisy piece". Now 30 years old, this is one of 15 works by various composers to have been selected as part of the Encore initiative from Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society, designed "to rediscover significant orchestral works by living British composers".
At 30 minutes in length, simply but rigorously structured, this is certainly a "significant" piece, textures gradually intensifying towards a fierce drum tattoo, and slackening off again as a beautiful ending approaches. Matthews' unashamed influences - Mahler, Britten, Steve Reich - are frequently detectable, and there are some bleaker Holstian moments, too.
And it was Holst whose Planets, after a convincing and committed account of the Matthews, completed the concert. Edwards summoned a powerful Mars and a chilling Saturn in this highly moving reading. But there was more Matthews here, with his controversial Pluto to follow the ethereal Neptune (here with the magical CBS Youth Chorus).
Actually he dovetails the music pretty tactfully, and, as he once told me, he was embarrassed about accepting the Halle's original commission, "but no one is forced to include it".
